Midwives under Fire

(While I am not a fan of some of the "issues" mentioned here due to my pro-life stance, I am appalled that anyone should decide where I can give birth. It's on my soapbox along with the government telling me my children belong to them at age 5, unless I jump through hoops to keep them home. It's soooo irritating.)

PushNews from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign
CONTACT: Steff Hedenkamp, (816) 506-4630, _steff@thebigpushfo

rsteff@theste_
(mailto:steff@thebigpushformidwives.org)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, September 1, 2008

Number Two With a Bullet
Critical Women's Health Issues Neglected as Physician Group Yet Again Sets
its Sites on Midwives

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 1, 2008)—In the newest phase of its ongoing
effort to deny women the right to choose their maternity care providers and birth
settings, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has
announced that eliminating access to midwives who specialize in
out-of-hospital birth is now the second most important issue on its state legislative
agenda. This move puts restricting access to trained midwives ahead of such
critical issues as contraceptive equity, ensuring access to emergency
contraception, and the prevention and treatment of perinatal HIV/AIDS.
"ACOG claims to be an advocate of women's health and choice, but when it
comes to the right to choose to deliver your baby in the privacy of your own
home with a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) who is specifically trained to
provide the safest care possible, ACOG's paternalistic colors bleed
through," said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the Big Push for Midwives
Campaign. "It is astonishing that an organization that purports to be a champion of
women's healthcare would put a petty turf battle that affects less than one
percent of the nation's childbearing women ahead of pressing issues that have
an impact on nearly every woman in this country. If this is not dereliction of
duty, I can't imagine what is."
In recent years, ACOG has led a well-financed campaign to fight legislative
reforms that would license and regulate CPMs and has now teamed up with the
American Medical Association (AMA) to promote legislation that would prevent
families from choosing to give birth at home. Despite these joint efforts, the
groups have not been successful in defeating the groundswell of grassroots
activism in support of full access to a comprehensive range of maternity care
options that meet the needs of all families.

"Wisconsin is a good example of what ACOG and the AMA are up against," said
Jane Crawford Peterson, CPM, Advocacy Trainer for The Big Push. "Our
bipartisan grassroots coalition of everyday people from across the state managed to
defeat the most powerful and well-financed special interest groups in
Wisconsin, all on an expenses-only budget of $3000 during a legislative session in
which $47 million was spent on lobbying. When you try to deny women the
fundamental and very personal right to choose where and how to give birth, they will
get organized and they will let their elected officials know that
restrictions on those rights cannot stand."

Noting these successes, ACOG has recently launched its own grassroots
organizing effort, calling on member physicians to recruit their patients to
participate in its "Who Will Deliver My Baby?" medical liability reform campaign.

"ACOG itself admits that we're facing a critical shortage of maternity care
providers," said Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator for the Big
Push. "They certainly realize that medical liability reform is nothing more than
a band aid and that increasing access to midwives and birth settings is
critical to fixing our maternity care system and ensuring that rural, low-income
and uninsured women don't fall through the cracks. Midwives represent an
essential growth segment of the U.S. pool of maternity care providers, but
instead of putting the healthcare needs of women first, ACOG would rather devote
its considerable lobbying budget to a last-ditch attempt to protect its own
bottom line. This is not a happy Labor Day for our nation's mothers and babies."

The Big Push for Midwives (_http://www.TheBigPuhttp://www.Thehtt_
(http://www.thebigpushformidwives.org/) ) is a nationally coordinated campaign organized
to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives
(CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to
push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association and the
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to deny American families
access to safe and legal midwifery care. The campaign plays a critical role in
building a new model of U.S. maternity care delivery at the local and regional
levels, at the heart of which is the Midwives Model of Care, based on the
fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes. Media inquiries: Steff
Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, _steff@thebigpushforsteff@theste_
(mailto:steff@thebigpushformidwives.org) .


The Big Push for Midwives Campaign is fiscally sponsored by Sustainable
Markets Foundation, a not-for-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt under
Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). The mission of the Big Push for
Midwives is to build winning, state-level advocacy campaigns towards successful
regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50
states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Visit the Big Push for Midwives Campaign on the Web at
_www.TheBigPushforMiwww.TheBig_
(http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=227950734&u=2397811) .

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The Big Push for Midwives Campaign | 2300 M Street, N.W., Suite 800 |
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